Smart Word Games

Word games are NOT all the same! Find word and letter games that make
gifted kids (and adults) think, laugh, and test thier mental flexibility...

More great word and letter games at
Toys
at Amazon.com,
MindWare
and
Discovery Store!
and many more - all the links on Shop Hoagies! -
are all Hoagies' Gifted Education Page affiliates. Purchase through Hoagies' Page links,
and these stores give a small
percentage to Hoagies' Page at no cost
to you. Thanks!

1-2-3 OY! and
A-B-C OY! card games
(numbers or letters) for the younger folks, multi-player or solitaire... lots
of fun!

More than just a spelling game, a fun-filled lexical labyrinth of
quick words and quicker wits, a word game where words don't have to be
the biggest to be the best. Players form words by using the letter tiles
and the letters printed on the board, and move through the maze. The
first player to make their way through the colored target spaces, and
reach the end of the maze wins... a different game every time you play!

Grab more tiles, and reorganize existing tiles into new words - the
banana bag stores the game and rules when they're not in use.
Great for vocabulary building or spelling practice, too! And try
Spanish
Bananagrams! And
Jumbo Bananagrams with twice the tiles, for an extra large crowd!

Blurt!, off the market for several years, is back and better than
ever. Think fast! What word means "a partially dried grape"? Be the
first to say "raisin," and you're on your way to winning this riotous
game of rapid word recall. Players take turns reading clues aloud,
competing to blurt out the correct answer first and move ahead on the
board. The first person or team to circle the board wins. Sounds simple,
but as the race for the right word heats up, and the blurting gets
boisterous, it's easy to get tongue-tied! Great vocabulary builder for
kids, hilarious addition to adult parties and family game night...

Shake up the lettered cubes, drop them into the grid and start the
timer. Then race to see who can list the most words with the
highest point value among the random letter assortment in the grid!
Or try
Boggle Jr. or
Boggle To Go

Hands consist of oversized cards with various artistic pictures. The
active player selects one of his cards and gives a brief description.
The other players select their own cards which match the description.
The chosen cards are shuffled and revealed, then players vote on which
was chosen by the active player. Each correct answer gives points to the
guesser and the active player. Each incorrect answer gives points to the
player who submitted the guessed card. However, if all of the guesses
are correct -- or none of them are -- then the active player gets no
points and all the other players get points...

First, a crazy definition is read to the group. Next, players use the
wacky word parts to create wildly funny new words to fit the definition.
Each new word is read out loud, and the "Wordmeister" picks the best one.
Faux·Cabulary—it's where new words come from...

Spinning the board as you go, take turns placing letter tiles and
earning points for each word you build. As long as letters are adjacent
and in the proper sequence, words may be read in any direction - up,
down, backwards, forwards, or in a sweeping swirl! Can be played at all
skill levels; perfect for the entire family...

Draw a category card and in 45 seconds, list as many related words that
come to mind. When the timer runs out, roll the die - if it lands on HIT,
pick a word that you think everyone wrote; if it lands on MISS, pick one
that only you wrote. Choose wisely and score big points...

Creative thinking and outrageous scenarios. Try to win a set of cards
by fitting smaller things into bigger things -- a baby goes in a
bathtub, which is in a house, in Hollywood. Play the fourth word card to
claim the set, unless one of your opponents can trump with a larger word...

See it, say it, build it! Two teams race against each other to be the
first to build a structure with the blocks provided, but only the
“Foremen” get to see the blueprint. Good verbal communication is the key
to winning! The game is complicated by challenges to keep it fresh every
time: silent foreman, memory challenges, blind foreman and timed
challenges...

An addictive, multifaceted word strategy game. Work with 5
letter tiles on your tray and all the letters on the board, rearranging,
adding and trading them, building and claiming longer and longer words
each turn. As you build words horizontally, keep your eyes peeled for a
Jumbulaya, a 7-, 8-, or 9-tile word that can be spelled vertically on
the board. Plan multiple moves ahead to create longer and longer words.
Earns points for all lines you claim, bonus points for using
"letter-combo" tiles, and even more points for being the first to find a
Jumbulaya. The player who earns the most points, wins!

The ultimate word seek game! Real wooden tiles contain 4 letters
each, double-sided for more combinations, and then distributed in an 8x8
board - it's a new challenge with each game. Find words in adjacent
letters, use letters your opponent already used for double or triple points,
but watch out for "red" letters... Or try
Keesdrow, a smaller version, created in plastic

Exciting, shoot-from-the-hip style word game that rewards you for making
words faster than your opponents can. The first time a tile is used, it’s
worth 10 points. Once it’s been scored, flip it to its orange side. Now it’s
worth only 5 points to other players!

From paper airplanes to Legos, marbles and jacks, from juggling to peg
solitaire to desktop football, from knitting and sewing to watercolor art to
thumbprint art... There are so many of these great books, they get their own
Hoagies page!

Last Word The uproarious race to have the final say! (2-8 players, ages
8+)

Subject: “Vegetables”…Letter: “C". Players race opponents and the
random-interval timer to yell them out…Carrots! Cucumbers! Corn!
Cauliflower! ‘tick-tick’… The player with the Last Word in before the
timer sounds advances…Oh! Celery! BZZZT!

This creative writing game inspires reluctant children to get words onto
paper.
In the Beginning... A Crucial Message from the Sleeping Guardian:I beseech you, do not read any further into this visionary document before
you have first heard my tale. For I hold the secret to the creation of
Druidawn, and in fact, the knowledge to all realms of human myth. It was my
people who brought the gift of magic to Earth thousands of years ago, before
there were castles and knights, before the construction of the Grecian
temples, when the great Egyptian pyramids were nothing but sketches in the
sand... Also visit
Legends of Druidawn
Creative Writing Solutions and the companion website
The World of Druidawn

Roll the special dice and flip the timer. Players race to list words
containing the three letters shown on the dice. Only words listed by a
single player score points so players are rewarded for their speed and
creative thinking... Adjust the difficulty for various levels by requiring
older / more verbal players to create longer words.

Let your imagination roll wild with Rory's Story Cubes! This
pocket-sized creative story generator provides hours of imaginative fun for
all ages. Roll the Story Cubes, nine dice with a different icon on each
side, and look at the face up images. Pick an image to start your story.
Beginning with "Once upon a time...", make up a story that somehow links all
9 face up images. There are no wrong answers! Also available as an
Android or
iTunes app.

Right off the top of your head name a restaurant, fruit, toy,
Halloween costume, and weapon--and make sure your answers all begin with
the same initial letter. There's 144 different categories to challenge
your mind...

A think-fast game of sentence creation. Form a sentence with words
starting with the letters on the letter cards you draw on your turn-but
be quick, before time runs out! A roll of the die determines if you have
30, 45, or 60 seconds to make your sentence. Draw G, R, Q, B, L, and I,
and create... Queen Isabella likes big red grapes; or maybe: Growing
irritated, Robert quits lottery betting. Bonus points for
following your action card...

Roll six large dice; two dice have only vowels, four dice have only
consonants. All players use the same dice on the same turn. Players copy
the letters from the dice onto paper. Use as many of the dice as you
can, add as many letters as you need. Expand your vocabulary and the
lengths of the words you use by adding on prefixes like: "dis", "un" or
"pre". Score more points and build your vocabulary using suffixes
like: "ably", "ment", and "ness"...

Try to find words containing or excluding the letters shown on the
dice. For example: "Name an object you can fit into a pocket containing
the blue letter." The first player to call out a correct response wins
the card and reads the next challenge. When the cards run out, whoever
has the most cards in the hive wins. Unqiue word challenges and dice
combinations make Speedeebee different every time it's played!

A new option to traditional storybooks, your little one can choose a
few of these images for you to tell short stories, or continue the
previous player's story. Develops literacy skills and concept
imagery, with unlimited possibilities and four game variations, Tell
Tale unlocks the creativity within everyone! Also available in
Tell Tale Fairy Tales

Word
Sense take turns flipping letter tiles and racing to think up
words that contain those letters. Be the first to correctly call out
a word, and keep the tiles. Tiles and dice fit neatly into the
travel case...

A lightning-fast game that's a battle to make and keep words. First to
spell out six words with letter tiles wins. Other players can steal
words and make them their own. Keep spelling, stealing & spelling some
more! Or try
Word
XChange Jr.

It’s not who gets the last word but who gets the most words. A
cross between Scrabble and Connect Four, form as many words as possible
going up, down, forward and backward. But be careful: your
opponent is watching and ready to steal your words!

Hilarious Tug of Words Game! On each turn, one team flips over a
category card. Team members frantically brainstorm words that fit the
category while opposition tries to sidetrack them. The team must agree
on a word one lane closer to their side of the street, all before the
time runs out... Also try
Word on the Street Jr.

Using a unique word deck of pentagon
shaped cards containing conjugations of funny words, famous names from
throughout history, familiar places, and wild cards, players have to
make grammatically correct and justifiable sentences. The real fun
begins when players have to read their sentences out loud and explain
what they mean to the rest of players. They form the jury and vote
thumbs up or down on whether the sentence and justification stand and
the points are scored...